What If?
by Savanna06
Summary: What if Charlie had met Bella at the airport when she returned from Italy? What if this simple change of events changes her entire reality? A re write of my never finished story Reality
1. A Rainy Night in Georgia

So I started this story a very long time ago and called in Reality…then dropped it because I ran out of good ideas but I just had a great idea to continue so I am going to reuse as much of the original story as possible. Do not get used to chapters this long or this many posts in a short amount of time…probably never happen again.

Takes place after Bella, Alice, and Edward leave Volturra. What if reality came crashing back and ruined the perfect little reunion between Bella and Edward. What if Charlie met Bella at the airport in Seatac? What if Charlie coming to the airport changes everything they have ever known?

Disclaimer I don't own anything but a crazy cat and you don't have to sue me for custody. I will gladly mail her to you at no charge

What If?

Chapter 1-Rainy Night in Georgia

"Bella" Edward said drawing my attention away from the tarmac. We had been sitting in an Atlanta Airport for the last three hours waiting for the storm to pass. "You can't ignore me forever."

_Want to bet?_ I thought to myself. It hurt to look at him, still so perfect looking as if the last six months had never happened. To know that I wanted him and he still didn't wanted me. The first few hours after we left Volterra had been heaven to me, being able to touch him and have him act like he cared about me. It was so easy to forget everything in Volterra, to hold off reality and replace it with the idea that we would be together again.

But reality kicked in the minute our plane touched down in Atlanta. So now I tried to stay as far away from him as possible, as far as they would let me. So that when he left me again, and I knew he would, it maybe wouldn't hurt as badly as before. _Fat chance of that_.

"I am not ignoring you, Edward." I said quietly, sure that if he didn't have his acute hearing he would not have heard me. "I have a headache" _lame excuse._

Turning my head to the left, I saw Alice shoot Edward a warning glance "How about we get you some food, Bella?" She said holding her hand out to me.

"Sure, Alice" I said "I should probably call Charlie too."

Edward stayed in the seating area with my bags as Alice gently led me to the closest restaurant. I could feel him watching us as we walked away.

"Everything is going to work out Bella," she said happily dancing along beside me, "you and Edward and meant to be together. Just give him a chance to explain everything."

"He doesn't have anything to explain."

"Be-"

"Just stop Alice; this is between me and him. And I need to figure everything out for myself. I know you love him, he's your brother, and I don't want to ruin our friendship by saying something that I can't take back. Besides I know he is listening to me through your thoughts, and that isn't fair."

"He's not," she said throwing a warning look over her shoulder, "I am just really worried about you and I want you to know that you can talk to me."

I smiled weakly at her, wrapping my arms around myself. "Of course I know that," I said trying to smile at her. I am pretty sure judging by the look on her face that it was a sad excuse for a smile. "Don't worry about me Alice, I will be fine."

"There is a phone over there, didn't you want to call your dad?" she said changing the subject once she determined that I would just keep repeating the same thing until she dropped the subject.

APOV

"Don't listen, Alice," Bella asked quietly "I know you want to, that you probably won't be able to help yourself, but please try."

"I'll try," I said pulling my arm from around her shoulders, "Here's some change, I'm going to go sit down ok?"

Bella smiled weakly before walking carefully towards the pay phones, her arms still wrapped tightly around herself, as if she was trying to hold herself together. As if this simple action could protect her from her new reality.

_Stop glaring at me Edward, _I thought, turning sharply to glare at him, _you did this._

"I didn't mean to, I thought I would make her life better." he mumbled quietly.

_Well that is a sad excuse._

Sighing as I sat down. As easy as it was to just blame him, the truth was we all did this to her, by allowing Edward to exile us from her life, and making him feel worse about it, wasn't going to change what we had done.

"What happened on the plane, Edward?" I asked quietly. "She seemed so happy when we left Volterra. I had a vision of you two getting married, she was one of us. You were getting married, everyone was there."

"Nothing. Everything was fine until the plane landed. She seemed a little hesitant but still exactly the same as before." he said closing his eyes.

"Obviously something did. I don't see her future with us as clearly as I did a few hours ago."

Edward started to argue but immediately stopped as Bella started walking towards us again. I watched as she consciously pulled the arms from around herself and fixed a blank expression on her face.

BPOV

I held the receiver for several minutes after Charlie had stopped yelling at me and hung up before placing it down gently. Evidently the relief at hearing that I was headed home on the next flight wasn't enough to distract him from the fact that I had left forks and the state of Washington without permission. He was planning to meet me at the Seatac airport so we could 'discuss my poor life choices' on the four hour drive back to Forks.

Taking several deep breathes; I braced myself before forcibly holding my arms by my sides.

"I am not sure if he bought my story but Charlie thinks we were in New Hampshire because Rosalie and Emmett were in a car accident," I said quietly before sitting down beside Alice.

She reached over and gently patted my leg peering into my face. "Everything will work out just fine, I'm sure"

"even though you would usually be the one to know, I am pretty sure your wrong this time" I said yawning.

"Go to sleep Bella, I promise to wake you up if you start to talk" She said quietly.

"Do you promise?"

"Of course, you will collapse if you try to stay awake much longer."

Reluctantly I closed my eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.

*****

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	2. Guilty

Chapter 2-Guilty

what's done is done  
I don't want to defend myself  
this time it's all my fault  
you say you've lost all respect  
cause I've gone against everything I've said

I'll probably end up dead and alone  
drove away the coolest girl I've ever known  
I'm guilty  
I feel guilty all the time

Guilty by All

APOV

"You are really going to have to work to make this up to her Edward" I thought examining my fingernails in the dim light of the cabin. We had been in the air for a few hours now and were scheduled to land in Seattle with the next 45 minutes. "You should have listened to me when I told you that leaving wasn't the best idea."

"I know Alice," Edward grumbled softly from the seat ahead of me. Bella had been practically comatose since Atlanta, waking only briefly to board the plane. She was currently curled up against Edwards arm, though if she knew that, she would jump to the farthest edge of her seat in an attempt to put distance between them.

"Well I also think you should know that the situation with Charlie hasn't calmed down. He keeps changing his mind about her punishment and it's not looking very good for you. And there have been several where she disappears entirely but that's probably because she's with the werewolves in La Push."

"Jacob Black," he growled "Leave it to her to find more trouble. I am sure the next thing we find out will be she is best friends with a fairy. Thank god they all live in Europe. What is Charlie thinking?"

"She is probably going back to her mom to finish the school year, its either that or military school but Charlie doesn't think he can get her admitted in time to start on Monday. Convent has come up a few times but he doesn't know if those still take delinquents anymore." I said laughing quietly to myself. "Where do humans come up with these things?"

Edward didn't respond. He had been watching her sleep since she fell back asleep before the plane took off.

"You are going to need to wake her up in 20 minutes." I said before closing my eyes and picturing my Jasper. It didn't take an idiot to see that Bella was pulling away from both of us to protect herself. She had been so determined to save him on the trip to Italy. Now she was pulling away from him to protect herself and now that she was hanging around the wolf pack it was hard to see her future. She had disappeared from my visions several times and I was assuming it was because of Jacob. I was worried what would happen to Edward if she didn't take him back. Would he stay with us or leave again?

"_Attention passengers, we will begin our descent into SeaTac International Airport in just a about 20 minutes..."_

EPOV

There is not a lot I regret about my life since I became a vampire. While I certainly would not have chosen this life for myself I believe I have done the best I can with it. Nothing, not even the years I lived away from my family and fed off humans, made me feel as poorly as I did in this moment. What the hell had I been thinking? How could I have been so stupid to leave her?

Because I wanted to protect her from myself and the other supernatural aspects of this world that every other human had managed to ignore and avoid but strangely she seemed to attract like honey. But I should have known that my Bella was a danger magnet and when left alone she would blindly stumble into the middle of it. She was never supposed to know that the monsters living under the beds of five-year-olds were real.

My biggest regret and the one thing that I would never change was the day I saved her from being hit by Tyler Crowley's car. Alice had seen it coming only seconds before the van hit the parking lot. I acted on instinct and pushed her out of the way, because even then, I knew that she was the one for me.

Sadly I was never meant to be hers. She was supposed to grow up, get married, and have kids; just like every other human on earth. And now thanks to my one split decision she would have to be turned into a vampire or killed risk being killed by the Volturi. Once she had begged me to change her but with her current behavior I was no longer sure that was her wish.

_I will sacrifice myself to save her_ I decided in that minute. I would do whatever it took to make sure she got everything she wanted in life. Even if it meant I had to leave her again. Though I knew that I would never go unless she asked me.

"Edward," she whimpered in her sleep, her head which had been resting against my shoulder suddenly turned toward me. If I didn't know better I would think she was awake, "please don't."

_Edward, you better wake her up _Alice reminded me from the seat behind us on the plane.

"Bella, it's time to wake up" I said gently shaking her shoulder. She turned her head sharply away and opening her eyes.

"Ed-" she said groggily, "where are we?"

"Almost to Seattle. Alice says we will be landing in the next ten minutes."

She quickly pulled away from me and rested her head against the back of her own seat. I could actually feel my useless heart rip in half at her actions.

"um..." she said after several minutes, "you need to make sure Charlie doesn't see Emmett or Rosalie at the airport. I told him they were in a car accident."

"Why is he picking you up?"

"Because if he didn't I would be stuck at the airport? You guys don't live there anymore, I assumed you would be flying back to where ever you're living now." she said quietly. "You are not obligated to make sure I get back home. I do have a father."

"Bella you are being absurd. Of course, we would have made sure you got home safely." I said barely holding back the hurt and anger in my voice. "Do you really think so little of us?"

Her eyes immediately teared up, making me feel like the jack ass that I was. Alice reached of the back of the seat to slap me in the back of the head. _Way to go, Edward._

"I'm sorry Bella, I didn't mean for it to come out that way. You know that we care about you. We would never have left you hours from your home."

She simply turned away from me and looked out the window.


	3. White Liar

Chapter 3-White Liar

Hey white liar  
The truth comes out a little at a time  
And it spreads just like a fire  
Slips off of your tongue like turpentine  
And I don't know why  
White liar

You better be careful what you do  
I wouldn't wanna be in your shoes  
If they every found you out  
You better be careful what you say  
It never really added up anyway  
I got friends in this town

BPOV

It seemed to take forever to de board the plane. I was dreading the confrontation I knew was coming with Charlie but even more than that I was dreading loosing Edward and Alice again. I had just gotten them back, and I knew they never planned to stay but it didn't make it hurt less. If only I hadn't jumped off that cliff, then none of this would have ever happened.

Quickly my thoughts changed directions and I started to worry about Charlie. He had every right to be furious with me. I had left him when he really needed me much like my mother had all those years ago. I hadn't meant to, I had planned to help him and the Clearwaters through loosing Harry, but I knew I couldn't live in a world that didn't have my Edward in it. So I had, for once in my life, ignored my head and followed my heart. And I didn't regret it. I knew I would do it again.

_I can deal with whatever Charlie throws at me _I repeated to myself silently over and over hoping that I would soon start to believe it.

Edward walked behind me as we followed Alice through the security checkpoints on the way to the baggage claim area. Carlisle, Esme, and Jasper were evidently waiting for us there. Once we made it through the last checkpoint, Charlie was nowhere to be seen.

Alice skipped ahead of us and up to Jasper I watched as they communicated in a way that only they could. Silently and full of meaning that no one else could fully translate.

"Please talk to Carlisle and Esme, Bella" Edward said quietly from behind me, pushing me forward gently. I had been hoping to skip this little reunion. Not because I resented the Cullen's, I loved them like my family, but because it hurt worse than anything to be this close to them and to know that they would be leaving me again.

"I am not a monster Edward. I loved them like they were my family." I mumbled, unsure why I had used the past tense. Edward looked at me sharply also noticing my use of the past tense. His jaw clenched but he went on as if he didn't notice.

"I didn't mean to imply that you were." he said leading me to them.

Esme immediately pulled Edward into a hug. This was especially hard for me to watch, because I wanted to be strong enough to hug him so freely. She had almost lost him like I had like I did and I knew she was just as happy as I was to have him back. Once Carlisle and Esme were done hugging him, Edward turned and walked the short distance to where Jasper and Alice were standing. The three of them began to talk quietly.

Esme wrapped me in her arms. Stroking her cold hand down the length of my hair. "Thank you for bringing him back to us." It felt like she held on to me forever, though it was only a few seconds.

I didn't answer her just looked down at my feet. She gently tipped my head up so she could look at my face. "Poor Bella, what have you done to yourself?"

"Nothing. I'm fine, just tired."

"No you're not." she said quietly glaring at Edward over my head. "Come with me and get cleaned up. We need to get going if we are going to make it back to Forks before midnight."

"Oh...um...Charlie is picking me up." I said quietly. Confused as to why for the second time today, the Cullen's thought they were going to Forks. "Aren't you going back to...um...?"

Smiling sadly she led me away. "Well honey, we were planning to move back to Forks for a while. Alice and Edward wanted to graduate with you. Haven't you and Edward patched things up?"

"There is nothing to patch up. Things haven't changed for him." I said sadly. I was not going to parade my humiliation in front of his entire family. Quietly I took the bag she offered and walked into the restroom.

Esme watched me quietly as I splashed water on my face and tried to tame the tangles from my hair. I almost cried when she handed me a toothbrush. She had effectively taken over for Edward as my guard.

I saw Charlie walking toward the group as I stepped out of the restroom. Esme and Carlisle stepped forward to greet him but Charlie did not acknowledge their presence. He did take a second to glare at Edwards who had moved to stand beside me. He didn't look as calm as I was hoping he would. As soon as he saw Edward his expression turned icy.

Quickly I looked at Edward. "What's he thinking?" I asked not really expecting him to tell me.

Shocked that I had initiated a conversation, Edward stammered "Convent. He thinks he should send you to a convent. And he wants to kill me…dismemberment seems to be a reoccurring theme."

"Let's go Bella" Charlie said raising his voice so I could hear him.

"Great I wouldn't look good in a habit" I mumbled before turning away from the group. Hitching my bag on my shoulder I started to walk away.

"Good luck Bella" Alice said quietly reaching out to touch my arm as I walked past.

"See you around." I said hurrying towards Charlie. Usually Charlie and I aren't very demonstrative people, but today he pulled me into a hug like he hadn't seen me in years. Or forever since he hadn't even really hugged me when I moved up here.

"What are you doing, Bella?" Charlie asked quietly releasing me. I didn't answer him as we walked through the airport terminal, "why do you continue to get yourself messed up with them? Do you have no sense of self preservation?"

"Dad," I started unsure of what to say to him.

"Not now Bella, its long drive back to Forks." He said lightly grabbing my arm and guiding me out to his patrol car.

_Why do people keep treating me like I am going to run away?_ I thought to myself and I scurried to keep up with his longer stride.

**Sorry for the delay. I went to my parents for Thankgiving and I caught a cold (I have been sick since October ****)but I couldn't call out to work so that sucked. I will try to update more frequently…also I am a little torn about the pairing of this story and am now firmly on Team Jacob (yummy) so if you want to voice an opinion about that please do so….i might put up a poll…haven't decided…but I am open to whatever…**


	4. Interludea short chapter sorry

Chapter 4-interlude

Edward POV

Alice was driving me crazy. She had a vision as we were walking through the airport and had been reciting the words to the Constitution over and over again in various languages. I had to wait until Bella was out of the way before I could force her to tell me what was going on. Once Esme took Bella to the bathroom to freshen up, I finally had my chance.

"Alice," I said walking up to where she and Jasper were standing, "care to clue me in on your vision?"

"Not especially Edward." She said lifting her head from where it rested against Jasper's chest. "it's nothing we can change. **You** can't change this one."

"nonsense" I muttered catching Jasper's eye. He just shook his head.

'Not sure what she saw man but it's bad' he thought. I nodded and turned to stare at the door to the restroom waiting for Bella to reappear.

"Edward," Carlisle said nodding to the door of the airport which was behind me at the moment, "Charlie just arrived."

The four of us turned to see him stalk through the doors of the airport. He did not look happy and decidedly less so when his eyes found mine. His eyes burned into mine with more malice then his thoughts portrayed.

Bella came out of the bathroom at that moment and walked up toward where Charlie was, stopping briefly by me to have ask what he was thinking. His thoughts centered around sending her far, far away from Forks and he had decided that Renee was not a reliable option. Alice and the others wished her luck and we watched as she walked away with her dad.

"Lets get going." Esme said quietly taking Carlisle's arm and began walking in the same direction as Charlie and Bella. "We have a long drive back to Forks, and you both need to think of a way to apologize to Charlie for dragging Bella half way a crossed the world and the both of you need to come up with a plausible story for why she was gone."

"But Esme." I whined.

"No Edward, you need to learn not to jump to conclusions. When has Rosalie ever been a reliable source of information? Especially when the subject doesn't concern her?" Esme said stopping and turning to glare at me. "And as you know Alice's visions are subjective. Why didn't you call her after you talked to Rose? I realize you are 109 years old but its time you grew up."

"Yes Esme" I said agreeing with her.

Esme continued her tyraid as we walked from the airport. She turned her wrath on Alice for taking Bella into Volterra. She had some pretty good points and Alice cringed beside me but was still reciting the Constitution in her head, this time in Italian. I really needed to find out what her vision was about.

**Ok evidently I am not in the mood to write the next part (lots of yelling at Bella by Charlie) but I am going to have something up by next Sunday. I swear…hahaha… and yes I know I suck at updating but life December is hard month to find time for yourself…January will be much better since all my paycheck went to my car repairs and I am pretty much grounded for the next month…no money means unhappy savannah.**


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